It’s easy to be pessimistic about Disney. Once upon a time, it was a film studio that captured the imaginations of the young and young at heart with clever, magical reinterpretations of classic tales and original, innovative stories. Now, it’s a regurgitative conveyor belt relying on cheap nostalgia and hollow pastiche to sell content, with no distinction in quality between films meant for theaters and slop intended for their streaming service. Gone are the days when the castle logo used to mean something special. The animated films that Disney (and their subdivision Pixar) have recently produced are either overly busy, mediocre fare (“Elemental,” “Strange World,” “Wish“) or bland, cash-grab sequels (“Inside Out 2,” “Lightyear,” “Moana 2“). And the few contemporary bright spots of originality and ingenuity saw their releases throttled by being shoved to streaming (“Encanto,” “Turning Red“).
Even more depressing is the trend of the past decade to repackage their animated films as bloated, visually unappealing live-action (albeit often with excessive CGI and blue screen usage) remakes. And despite their marked dip in caliber, the Oscars still often find a place for Disney. Of course, the animated films are helped by the existence of the Best Animated Feature category. But how do the live-action remakes fare? In anticipation of the impending release of “Snow White,” let’s take a look at the recent slate of Disney’s live-action remakes and see how warmly – or poorly – they’ve been embraced by the Academy.
Although Disney really revved up the remake trend within the past 10 years or so, the first film to do so actually came out in the 90s, at the height of the studio’s legendary Renaissance. “The Jungle Book” was released in 1994, directed by Stephen Sommers, who would later helm the beloved Brendan Fraser vehicle “The Mummy.” The film was a modest hit but didn’t crack $100 million or receive any major awards recognition. But this didn’t discourage the studio, who released “101 Dalmatians” two years later, starring Glenn Close in a fantastically unrestrained performance as Cruella de Vil. This film was a major box office success and even earned Close a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. The Academy didn’t acknowledge it, but its 2000 sequel – the far less successful “102 Dalmatians” – received a nomination for Anthony Powell’s costumes. This would turn out to be the sixth and final nomination for Powell, who picked up three Oscars during his storied career.
The remainder of the aughts saw no more live-action remakes, as the studio struggled in general with a lackluster output of animated films (Pixar far outpaced Disney in terms of quality and financial success). But in 2010, one of Disney’s biggest hits ever tumbled into theaters – Tim Burton’s reimagining of “Alice in Wonderland.” Although it’s more of a bizarre sequel than a remake – and despite being an abomination of a film, both on a storytelling and visual level – it was a gargantuan hit, grossing over $1 billion worldwide (undoubtedly helped by the 3D trend that had elevated “Avatar” to the top of the list of highest grossing films of all time after its release only a few months before “Alice in Wonderland”). As such, awards bodies could hardly ignore it. It received three nominations from the Golden Globes (including Best Picture – Musical or Comedy, in one of the worst ever lineups for that category), the BAFTAs gave it five nominations and two wins (Best Costume Design and Best Makeup & Hair), and infamously, the Oscars awarded it wins in two of the three categories where it was recognized. It won Best Art Direction (anecdotally, one of the ugliest winners that category has ever had), Best Costume Design, and received a nomination for Best Visual Effects. A completely-forgotten sequel, “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” was released in 2016, but it made far less money and was thankfully absent from that season’s awards conversation.
The enormous success of “Alice in Wonderland” kicked off an unceasing onslaught of live-action remakes that’s continued to this day. 2014 and 2015 saw the releases of “Maleficent” (a prequel to “Sleeping Beauty” starring Angelina Jolie that reimagines the titular villain as more of an anti-hero, if not an outright hero) and Kenneth Branagh’s “Cinderella,” respectively, both of which received Oscar nominations for their lavish costume designs. In 2016, the studio took another swing at “The Jungle Book,” this time directed by Jon Favreau, hot off his launching of the MCU with the first two “Iron Man” films. It was filmed entirely on sound stages and, besides child actor Neel Sethi as Mowgli, every element of the film was rendered by computers. It’s an undeniably impressive technological achievement, and as such, the Academy awarded it Best Visual Effects.
The following year, Bill Condon directed a reimagining of one of Disney’s most beloved animated films, “Beauty and the Beast.” It was an even bigger hit than “Alice in Wonderland” and, like that film, it was widely recognized by awards bodies all season long for its sets and costumes. This precursor attention led to seemingly inevitable Oscar nominations for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. 2018 saw the release of a more unconventional live-action reinterpretation of a classic animated tale. “Christopher Robin,” like “Alice in Wonderland,” follows the titular character (played by Ewan McGregor) into their adulthood, long after their magical childhood adventures with Winnie the Pooh and the gang. Although Marc Forster’s film was, compared to Disney’s other remakes, a box office disappointment, the astounding way in which it brings the stuffed animal characters to life earned the film an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects.
2019 saw an explosion of live-action remakes. Five of them were released, although one of them (“Lady and the Tramp”) went straight to Disney+ and was thus ineligible for the Oscars. Two were also rejected by the Academy, despite featuring technical achievements not dissimilar from previously-nominated work. Tim Burton returned to the typically-profitable remake well with “Dumbo,” which was a comparative box office disappointment. On the other hand, Will Smith’s starring version of “Aladdin” made enough money to put the Cave of Wonders to shame. As such, it’s a bit surprising that it couldn’t even manage an Oscar nod for its extravagant costumes, if nothing else. Conversely, “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” like its predecessor, received a single Oscar nomination, but this time for Best Makeup & Hairstyling.
Another huge 2019 hit for the House of Mouse was Jon Favreau’s “The Lion King.” Although most critics rejected it as a soulless gutting of one of the studio’s greatest original films, the Academy was unable to ignore its photorealistic CGI creations, giving it a nomination for Best Visual Effects. Strangely, despite being entirely created inside computers and featuring no real-life elements besides its opening sunrise shot, Disney insisted that this was a live-action remake and didn’t campaign for Animated Feature awards categories. Instead, the studio pushed for it to be considered in areas traditionally reserved for true live-action films, like Best Cinematography and Best Production Design. Hilariously, the Golden Globes ignored this dictum, nominating it in their Best Animated Feature Film category.
2020 was – as with basically every aspect of life – an odd year for the Academy Awards. Arguably, thanks to a limited slate of eligible films, the remake of the 90s animated musical “Mulan” (which removed all diegetic songs) received as many nominations as Disney’s entire slate of 2019 live-action remakes combined. The Academy gave it two nods for Best Costume Design and Best Visual Effects. The following year would be Disney’s last appearance at the Oscars to date for their live-action remakes. “Cruella,” in an echo of the Glenn Close-starring versions of the “101 Dalmatians” stories, won the Oscar for Best Costume Design, alongside a nomination for Best Makeup & Hairstyling. In addition, like Close before her, Emma Stone received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy for her delightful portrayal of the legendary fur-lover (as in “Maleficent,” her story here is rejiggered to make her more of a sympathetic protagonist).
Since then, the Academy has entirely ignored Disney’s non-animated films. Two of their recent remakes (“Pinocchio” and “Peter Pan & Wendy“) were excised from consideration thanks to non-theatrical Disney+ releases. However, Rob Marshall’s 2023 remake of “The Little Mermaid” was totally passed over by the Oscars despite featuring abundant CGI work and new songs from eight-time Oscar winner Alan Menken and multi-nominee Lin-Manuel Miranda. And last year, Oscar winner Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight“) directed a prequel to 2019’s “The Lion King,” entitled “Mufasa: The Lion King.” Again, the Academy passed up the chance to nominate it for either its visual effects or any of its songs, also penned by Miranda.
And now we come to “Snow White,” starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot. Only time will tell if the Academy embraces the film, although based on what’s been released, it doesn’t appear to feature technical elements that are more markedly impressive than anything they’ve released recently. Although they certainly achieved different levels of subjective success, earlier live-action remakes like “The Jungle Book” and “The Lion King” touted their technological achievements as reasons for their existence. More recently, Disney seems to just be churning these films out in a blatant attempt to make their accountants happy, neglecting to sell the films with any sort of interesting angle besides “this is a story you know and love, don’t you want to see it again?” Perhaps “Snow White” will signal a new era for these live-action remakes, one in which they’re actually constructed with the studio’s past embrace of magic and imaginative storytelling in mind. But still, the studio’s recent output doesn’t encourage such an optimistic viewpoint. As many of the heroes and heroines in the studio’s best movies do, all that Disney fans can do is wish for a brighter future.
Have you see “Snow White” yet? If so, what did you think of it? Do you think it will be nominated for any Oscars this year? Please let us know in the comments section below and on Next Best Picture’s X account.
